Crusade John Wilson Sparknotes

Crusade by John Wilson is a novel that displays the albigensian crusade that took place south of france in 1209-1215. The Albigensian crusade goal was to eliminate the cathars, a form of heresy to the catholic church. Catharism was a religion that was based on the belief of two gods, one as evil and the other as the good. This belief in two gods defied the reigning monotheistic catholic church. Due to the non-tolerance of the cathars pope Innocent III called a crusade after the death of the priest Pierre of Castolene. In Crusade, John Wilson creates two fictional characters and their fictional journey throughout the crusade. Wilson introduces John and Peter as the two fictional characters in his book. John and Peter are two orphans who are

It’s goal was to eliminate Catharism for good. Crusade does a great job of describing the view of cathars during the high middle ages. The cathars in the novel were described as passive people who believed that souls are god’s work while all material things are the devil’s work. ““Do you think all material things are the devil’s work?”, Beatrice replies “Indeed, and it must be so. Do you think god would create something that will cause as much destruction and misery as this?””(Crusade 107). Beatrice is a character in the novel who is a cathar perfect. This quote clearly shows the views of the cathars. In the novel, Cathars were also described as people who kept track of history through books but the book “Cabala to Crimea” says other wise. "In its earlier days, it has been argued that the cathar religion was more a collection of myths and moral teachings than a coherent doctrine or a set of doctrines". This inaccuracy could be because this trait of the cathars was fictional as well, just like John. The book Crusade also mentions how every cathar has to take the consolamentum. “ It is our dedication to God. Every good christian must take it before death if he or she is to enter paradise. The ones who take it early and live the way God wants them to are called perfects” This is historically accurate as well according to the book Cabala to Crimea. From the book Crusade by

John Wilson uses historically accurate events in Crusade to make a realistic view of what happened in the fictional character John’s eyes. Beziers was the city that many cathars were settled in and a big wall surrounded the city to make it unbreakable. On page 111 in Crusades it states that “Beziers, the fortress that was supposed to break the hearts of the crusader army against its impregnable walls, was doomed”. This underlines how Beziers was a very strong city will strong walls and that the cathars were under attack and were not prepared for it giving a perspective of John who was in the city. The trusted source of Britinnica.com says “During the first season the Crusaders captured Béziers in the heart of Cathar territory”. This supports the book's view of the beziers capture. Arnold Aumery had a famous line that was mentioned on page 116 in the book, “kill them all! God will recognize his own”. This line was a true line said by Aumery according to the online source “cathar castles” It was here that the abbott-commander gave the famous command "Kill them all - the Lord will recognise His own". This line showed the emphasize of the willingness to kill all of the cathars by the